Spark Certificates Now Available in SparkPeople Store

Friday, June 26, 2009

Many members have expressed interest in buying gift certificates to the SparkPeople Store. We are happy to announce that Spark Certificates, which you can buy for friends, family members or fellow members, are now available in the SparkPeople store. They are available in increments of $10, $25, $50, $75 and $100.

Spark Certificates are perfect gifts to reward those who are working toward their own goals, and a convenient way for them to purchase what they want, when they want it!

When you order a Spark Certificate from our store, you'll receive an email containing a unique code that can be used to purchase anything in the SparkPeople Store. Please note that all gift certificates are valid for 6 months from their purchase date.

Check out Spark Certificates here to learn more or purchase yours today!

We hope you enjoy buying Spark Certificates for your friends!

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New Feature - Video Blog Entries

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hi everyone

You now have the option to upload a video blog entry! To do this simply go to your blog page and you will see a new "Add a Video Blog" button under the "Add a Blog Entry" button. Uploading is 3 easy steps:
1) On the first page enter your video title and description, agree to the video Terms and Conditions, and choose the video file* from your computer to upload. You can then click the Upload button. It will take a few minutes to upload your video - with more or less time based on your video's file size.
2) After uploading you will come to a page to make your blog entry. We have pre-filled your title and description, but you can add more here if you would like. You can also pick an optional category for your video.
3) After posting your blog entry it will take a few minutes for us to process your video. You will see a message saying your video is processing. You can hit refresh every few minutes until you see your video. It typically takes around 10-15 minutes for your video to be ready to play.

Once your video is up other members can view your video from your blog and make comments like they would any other blog.

Members have asked for this feature for some time - to share progress, share Woohoo moments, and even share tips like their favorite workout or recipe. We hope you like this feature! If you want to see a few sample upload videos you can click here or here.


* Note that we support a wide variety of video formats, including: avi, dv, fl4, m4a, mov, mp4, mpeg, wav, wma, wmv, mp3, mpg, mts, qcelp, qt, mod, 3gp, 3gpp, amr-nb, and asf.

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2 New Features - Enhanced Weigh-In Page & Dining Out Guide

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Hi everyone, we launched 2 new features today that we think you will like!

Enhanced Weigh-In and Measurements Page
While many of our members look a lot at the scale to measure their progress, many also like to watch their progress in other ways such as energy level, body measurements, or fitness levels. We have set up a number of other types of things you can track, with information on how to track and levels to try to reach. In addition, we have made it so that for some goals you can track progress more than one time a day. This has been a common request from members who track their blood sugar throughout the day! To see these changes go to your Weigh In page and click Add/Change Measurements.

Dining Out Guide
When eating healthy a common challenge is making the right choices when eating away from home. Our Dining Out Guide can help! We have a list of the most popular restaurant chains, and tips from SparkPeople for eating at each chain. Plus, we allow members to submit their favorite "Healthy Finds" from these restaurants, and for other members to vote for items they feel are healthy as well. You can find this feature under Healthy Lifestyle, then Nutrition, then in the center column of the Nutrition page.


UPDATE: There was a problem after this launched with weight loss tickers not updating. This was fixed on Thursday the 25th at around 10:30 AM EST, so if you track again it will update your ticker. Thanks for the comments about this issue!

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SparkMail Tweaks Launched Today

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Hi everyone

We launched a few tweaks to SparkMail today:
1) You can now save "Drafts" of SparkMail messages. When composing or replying to a message you will now see a button to save your Draft, and you also have a Drafts folder in your list of folders.
2) An overall visual redesign, making the buttons and links easier to find and use.

We hope you like these enhancements, we know that many members find SparkMail a great way to support one another!

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SparkRecipes Has a Fresh New Look AND New Features!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

We're excited to launch a BIG update to www.SparkRecipes.com today! There are two main aspects of this update:

1. A new overall design
Since we launched SparkRecipes, the number of recipes members have shared has really exploded! We wanted to make the design cleaner and more organized so the site is easier for everyone to use.

• We added our "Advanced Search" to the homepage so new members can quickly find the recipes they're looking for.
  
• You can now get to ALL of our recipe categories from every page of the site; just mouse over "Browse Recipes" on the upper left of the site navigation.
  
• We added a new navigation for "What's Popular" so you can find what searches and recipes are popular.

2. New features
We love adding new features that our members request! Some of the new features include:

• The ability to select foods (ingredients) from your SparkPeople Favorites and search foods "shared" from other members when using the Recipe Calculator. Both of these features should make it quicker and easier to use the calculator!
  
• More food and cooking articles on SparkRecipes. You can find these under the "What's Popular" tab at the top of the site.

We hope you like the new updates, but wanted to let you know we won't stop here! We haven't announced this anywhere else yet, but SparkPeople is now working with a World Master Chef (and active mother of 3) who will develop new recipes, create video demonstrations and even makeover some recipes from our members! Keep an eye out for this next month!

www.SparkRecipes.com

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